Nurses support assumed organ donation policy

Nurses backed a shake-up of the organ donation system yesterday to ease shortages and increase the number of transplants.

The Royal College of Nursing’s annual congress, which has previously opposed removing organs from patients not specifically registered as donors, overwhelmingly supported “presumed consent”.

Dr Peter Carter, the college’s general secretary, said that the decision showed the “vast majority” of nurses were unhappy with the present system, in which patients have to “opt in” to donate their organs.

Hundreds of people on the transplant waiting list die every year. Doctors warn that Britain has a particularly acute shortage of certain organs, including kidneys, livers and hearts.

Gordon Brown has indicated his support for presumed consent.

Last year, he suggested that such a move could “close the gap” between the possibilities of organ donation and the reality. However, the Prime Minister stressed that he still wanted relatives to be able to stop organs being harvested from their loved ones if they found the idea too painful — so-called “soft” presumed consent.

In 2000, RCN delegates voted against presumed consent amid fears that it could confuse vulnerable groups and damage the trust between nurses and patients.

Since then, other medical unions, including the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, have backed the idea.

At yesterday’s meeting, only around 30 per cent of delegates voted for the motion against presumed consent.

Dr Carter said the nurses’ union would consider its policy on the issue and may lobby the Government to act. The clear message from the congress was that “the vast majority of nurses are not happy with the current state of affairs”, he said.

The BMA has indicated its support for “soft” presumption of consent, which has proved successful when it has been introduced in other European countries, including Spain and Belgium. Under the system, objectors are required to inform the authorities that they do not want their organs to be harvested after their death, although relatives still have a final say.

Surveys have shown that about nine out of 10 Britons think that they would be willing to donate their organs after death.

However, less than a quarter of the population has signed up to the register. Just over 14 million people are on the organ donor register according to UK Transplant. More than 3,000 organ transplants have been carried out in the past 12 months, however there are still more than 7,000 people waiting for an organ.

Patients’ groups have expressed concern that any change in the law could lead to the state making decisions over people’s organs.